Florida state K-12 education chancellor Dr. Cheri P. Yecke is disputing the accuracy of a newspaper report published back on October 9, 2003. I had quoted that report in a post here on August 30, 2005, so last week I got an email from ďReputationDefendersĒ saying that they were working for Dr. Yecke, and would appreciate my cooperation in removing or modifying the offending quote.

Iím all for accuracy of content, so what I did was to add a quote from the email just after the disputed quote, showing everyone that the quote is disputed.

Since the dispute centers upon the content of some printed publicity materials given out before a commissionerís hearing in Minnesota, it seems to me that this is, in principle, a checkable matter: find the printed material and figure out who has got it right, and who has got it wrong. I asked ReputationDefenders about perhaps getting a copy of the material from Dr. Yecke. That was not productive. I called up the original reporter, trying to track things down from that end. Joel said that he has never received a complaint from Yecke over the content of the article. And I asked Ron Matus of the St. Petersburg Times to check into this, since working journalists often can get access to this sort of material quickly. So far, the actual document in question remains unavailable.

Ron Matus has a news item in the St. Petersburg Times relating developments on this so far. Iím hoping that with this publicity, someone will come forward with the document that Iím looking for to make a definitive determination on what really was the case back in 2003.

Being that Minnesota's my state I wish I had information on this that would contribute something new, but I don't...she really didn't do that much while here, not being confirmed and all (and being confused and all).

I just find it interesting that she's cutting and running from an ID curriculum now.

--------------Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

I suspect, but cannot substantiate, that Yecke sought to distance herself from the loser label "intelligent design" without actually committing herself to an explicit repudiation of the antievolution content behind the label. The issue is that "intelligent design" advocacy now is apparently widely regarded as a negative thing.